Who needs more new web addresses? – Google Amazon

The plan to liberalise internet addresses attracted 1,930 applications, almost half of them from north America, with web giants Amazon and Google applying for dozens of domains including .cloud, .buy and .book.

Competing applications were received for 231 domain names. The most popular were .app with 13 bids, .home with 11, and .inc with 12.

Technology giant Apple’s claim to .apple was uncontested by the Apple music label or anyone else. “That’s where short, memorable, distinctive three-letter type terms become very interesting,” said Robinson, whose organisation already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi.

“There appear to be no applications from Facebook or Twitter. There are different strategies in play here and some big gambles.”

Just 17 applications were received from Africa, and 116 for names in non-Latin alphabets. Expanding the internet beyond the Latin alphabet was one of the original reasons behind the liberalisation drive, which began seven years ago.

ICANN is set to net some $350 million from the liberalisation project – about five times its annual budget.